


Firm

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Mentor/Protégé, spoilers for Infinity War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 10:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14446863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: The kid’s body trembles as much as his cries, but somehow Tony stands upright, straight, for once totally focused, unyielding.Tony and Peter, at the end of everything.





	Firm

The silence that suddenly fills his head when Peter speaks— _I don’t feel so good, Mr. Stark_ —is jarring, a sudden absence of something so familiar he’s forgotten it’s there, like heartbeats or breathing or the buzz of the arc reactor in his chest before he’d cast it into the ocean or the clang of metal on his skin. All his life, noise has banged around his brain—equations and blueprints and suit specs and witty retorts and the taste of booze, and messier things as well, things like Yinsen’s eyes in that last moment in Afghanistan, and wormholes and falling falling falling without air and dying the feeling of _knowing_ he’s going to die that he’s dead already, and worse, visions of the people he _loves_ dying, a broken shield at his feet in Sokovia that lingers no matter how many times he tells himself it was a hallucination—all his life, noise has banged around his brain, so now the sudden absence nearly knocks him over.

Except it doesn’t. It can’t. Because he knows what is about to happen, and Peter does too, voice shaking as he sobs out in earnest and approaches _I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go._ The kid’s body trembles as much as his cries, but somehow Tony stands upright, straight, for once totally focused, unyielding. 

In some ways (in _every_ way), this is a realization of everything he has feared for the past two years, ten years, his whole goddamn life. And in a moment—after Peter is gone, blown away like ashes from the debris of a Stark Industries missile—this knowledge will strike him. He will collapse in on himself, sitting on his knees, numb and shaking and _screaming_ inside his head but shocked and silent outside of it. And he won’t feel like he is dead too, but he’ll wonder why he isn’t, and he’ll wish that he were. 

But for now, his head is quiet. The kid is terrified. The kid needs him. The selfish angst and guilt are gone—if just for an instant—because they won’t help Peter, and without them only Tony remains. He pulls the kid toward him in an embrace that’s not enough— _God,_ it’s not enough—but that is all he can do, and he holds him fast, firm, unrelenting even as Peter’s legs buckle and Tony is forced to ease his body to the ground. 

Tony Stark has never felt more like iron than he does in this moment. He’s never felt more like steel. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


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